2012 Academy Award nominations announced at a ceremony in Los Angeles today.

Here's the guide to the films and stars nominated in the major categories.

Nine films were nominated for Best Picture this year: acclaimed French silent film The Artist; family drama The Descendants; 9/11 drama Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close; Civil Rights-era picture The Help; Martin Scorsese's love-letter to cinema Hugo; Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (widely seen as his best film in years); Aaron Sorkin-written baseball drama Moneyball; Terrence Malick's experimental The Tree of Life; and Steven Spielberg's War Horse.

Nominated for the Best Actor award were Demian Bichir in A Better Life; George Clooney in The Descendants; Jean Dujardin in The Artist; Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; and Brad Pitt in Moneyball.

In the running for the Best Actress Oscar are Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs; Viola Davis in The Help; Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady; and Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn.

The Best Supporting Actress contenders are Berenice Bejo in The Artist; Jessica Chastain in The Help; Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids; Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs; and Octavia Spencer in The Help.

The actors shortlisted for the Best Supporting Actor award are Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn; Jonah Hill in Moneyball; Nick Nolte in Warrior; Christopher Plummer in Beginners; and Max von Sydow in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.

The directors nominated for the Best Director Oscar are The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius; Alexander Payne for The Descendants; Martin Scorsese for Hugo; Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris; and The Tree of Life's Terrence Malick.

The Academy's choices for the Best Foreign Language Film were Belgium's 'Bullhead; Footnote from Israel; In Darkness from Poland; Canada's Monsieur Lazhar; and A Separation from Iran.

The Best Animated Feature Film nominations - for once not including Pixar, after they released poorly-recieved Cars 2 - went to French film A Cat in Paris; Spanish animation Chico & Rita; sequel Kung Fu Panda 2; Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots; and the Johnny Depp-starring Rango.

Before getting an Oscar, let's see if a Bollywood star/film would even get the most prestigious film prizes from the Government of India. Look at the exalted list who have received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's most pretigious film award: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dadasaheb_Phalke_Award

To be fair, I would expect names like Amitabh Bachan and Rajnikanth to receive the award soon but it's important to stress that Bollywood is not the be all and end all of Indian Cinema.

Originally Posted by shaad
Concur wholeheartedly. The movie can also be viewed as a metaphor for the current states of affairs in Iran.

BTW, Naimul monu (re: current avatar), tumi ki Borishaila naki?

Lol,

My father's home district is Barisal, I was born and brought up in Dhaka. Though Barisal is my father's home district, i went there only 2/3 times in my whole life and that too when i was a kid. So, i have very vague memories of Barisal. For this reason, i hardly understand Barisal dialect, cant even speak. Rather i have spent 10-12 years all together in Khulna, Sylhet. But somehow i feel connected to Barisal, feels like that's my own identity. Another reason of supporting Barisal is that, i want to redeem myself from not visiting much of my root.

Originally Posted by HereWeGo
^^^
After Gazillions of restrictions, Iranian Cinema still somehow manages to produce such gems...!!! Simply amazing...

Quote:

Originally Posted by mufi_02
^^^ And Bollywood movies fails terribly. I can't remember last time I watched a good Hindi movie. They are getting so bad that I don't even wanna watch trailers anymore.

There are two separate issues here.

First, I suspect there might be a case of sampling or ascertainment bias. Most of the Iranian movies that we watch are ones that have already been through a strict selection process -- they are the ones that some critics believed would be of interest to non-Iranians, as demonstrated by the addition of subtitles. As such, it's quite possible that there are much more derivative examples of Iranian cinema out there; we just don't consider them because we (non-Iranians) have never encountered them.

Because of the manner in which Hindi has penetrated Bangladesh, there is thus no such need for subtitles and thus a similar selection process does not occur with respect to Indian films. Additionally, because of proximity, sheer numbers, and well, better production qualities in Bollywood drek compared to Dhollywood drek, we tend to be overwhelmed with a glut of Indian movies. That's not to suggest that some decent Indian movies don't get made (they do), but they are swamped by material geared towards the lowest common denominator. So I would still be a little hesitant about jumping to conclusions.

The second issue I'd like to raise concerns what constitutes "failing". Presumably, Bollywood wouldn't churn out such tripe, and in such quantities, if it didn't make some profit. Then, by at least the criteria of the marketplace, these movies don't fail. Yes, with silly predictable plots, juvenile song-and-dance numbers, and actresses getting their saris or tops plastered to themselves after the expected episode involving rain, river or a fountain, most of them are not anywhere near original. But they offer a healthy dose of escapism to a much more ethnically and culturally diverse audience than say, the Iranians. They might do this by appealing to the lowest common denominator, but does that make them any less successful?

Mind you, I say all this as someone who is NOT a fan of generic Bollywood fare. But I'd want to see more Iranian movies (including the ones that don't normally leave the country) before I go out on a limb and suggest that the latter are definitely superior.

Originally Posted by HereWeGo
You should watch a "Tree of Life".... I felt so dumb cuz I hardly understood the deeper meaning of this movie!!! I love artsie/indie films but this one just bored me to death!!

It's Terrence Malick...you know you're not going to get a straightforward narrative from him.

First, I suspect there might be a case of sampling or ascertainment bias. Most of the Iranian movies that we watch are ones that have already been through a strict selection process -- they are the ones that some critics believed would be of interest to non-Iranians, as demonstrated by the addition of subtitles. As such, it's quite possible that there are much more derivative examples of Iranian cinema out there; we just don't consider them because we (non-Iranians) have never encountered them.

Because of the manner in which Hindi has penetrated Bangladesh, there is thus no such need for subtitles and thus a similar selection process does not occur with respect to Indian films. Additionally, because of proximity, sheer numbers, and well, better production qualities in Bollywood drek compared to Dhollywood drek, we tend to be overwhelmed with a glut of Indian movies. That's not to suggest that some decent Indian movies don't get made (they do), but they are swamped by material geared towards the lowest common denominator. So I would still be a little hesitant about jumping to conclusions.

The second issue I'd like to raise concerns what constitutes "failing". Presumably, Bollywood wouldn't churn out such tripe, and in such quantities, if it didn't make some profit. Then, by at least the criteria of the marketplace, these movies don't fail. Yes, with silly predictable plots, juvenile song-and-dance numbers, and actresses getting their saris or tops plastered to themselves after the expected episode involving rain, river or a fountain, most of them are not anywhere near original. But they offer a healthy dose of escapism to a much more ethnically and culturally diverse audience than say, the Iranians. They might do this by appealing to the lowest common denominator, but does that make them any less successful?

Mind you, I say all this as someone who is NOT a fan of generic Bollywood fare. But I'd want to see more Iranian movies (including the ones that don't normally leave the country) before I go out on a limb and suggest that the latter are definitely superior.

I agree with you on most part. There might be a lot of Persian movies that we haven't seen and are exposed to only the award-winning ones.

But my point was more towards the gradual decline in quality of B'wood movies. All the recent blockbusters (Dabang, Bodygurad, Ra.One, Desi Boyz and such) are masala movies at best. They are, as you said movies that provides escapism to the common denominator. On the other hand, hindi blockbusters of the 80s and early 90s had masala but also had substance. Movies like Deewar, Aradhana, Masoom can still be watched numerous times. These movies had song and dance numbers and so does Ra.One . I am saying the lack of quality is just very visible.